Populous (abbreviated PPT for Populous Platform Token) is a P2P invoice and trade finance platform built on the Ethereum blockchain. It combines the transparency, speed, and security of the blockchain with proprietary smart contracts to connect business owners with investors on a global scale without the need of any third parties.
The platform chose to use blockchain technology because it doesn’t discriminate. Financing has traditionally only been available through financial institutions that charge a premium and have several barriers to entry. Perhaps the biggest barrier for both investors and invoice sellers is the geographic limitation imposed by the current model.
Populous uses a fiat-pegged crypto token called Poken to allow invoice sellers and investors to work together no matter where they are located. Poken is Ethereum ERC20 complaint and can be pegged to virtually any fiat currency. The stability of Poken creates a unique trading environment for investors and invoice sellers.
Populous allows companies to sell invoices quickly, and then redeem their Pokens for real-world fiat currency in a way that’s cheaper, faster, and more transparent than what is offered by conventional invoicing marketplaces. To date, Populous is the first and only global invoicing platform on the Ethereum blockchain.
Populous (PPT) Value, Market Cap and Volume
The platform’s ICO period was supposed to run from July16 to August 16, 2017, but it was canceled after a successful pre-ICO period that started on June 7 and raked in 39,600 ETH ($11 million USD). The pre-ICO sold out all available PPT.
There is a maximum available supply of 53 million PPT of which 41 million are already in circulation. The development team is holding on to 12 million PPT. As of December 2017, PPT ranked 19th by market capitalization with a market cap of $942,267,302 USD and a 24-hour volume of $2,591,000 USD. The value of PPT reached $22.84.
How Populous Works
Populous uses smart contracts to eliminate the risks and inefficiencies of conventional contracts. A smart contract executed between an investor and invoice seller is only confirmed when the transaction is entered into the ledger.
All legalities are written into the smart contract and are legally binding once it’s executed. Smart contracts eliminate any chance of fraud because they run exactly as programmed and won’t allow invoices that have already been funded to receive double funding.
Financing within Populous is made possible through the use of Pokens. The token is pegged 1 to 1 with the fiat currency used in a given transaction. For example, $9 USD is represented by 9 Pokens. Since the tokens are Ethereum-based, they can easily be integrated into smart contracts created on the Ethereum blockchain. Using Pokens shields all participants from market volatility and guarantees a stable trading environment.
Exchanging Pokens
All financial transactions between investors and sellers on Populous are performed using Pokens. The investor transfers Pokens to the invoice seller, and the seller transfers the tokens back to the investor on repayment of the invoice. Withdrawal of funds is in fiat currencies, Bitcoin, or Ethereum.
Pokens are tied to the British Pound (GBP) by default because Populous is based in London. Users can convert their GPB Pokens to Pokens of another fiat currency within the platform. For instance, a user can convert their GBP Pokens into EUR Pokens based on the rates set by the London Stock Exchange. All fiat currency conversion will be set by the official stock exchange of the country.
Funds can also be deposited in BTC and traded for Pokens based on the aggregated crypto exchange rate at the time the deposit was made. When withdrawing, the tokens can be traded for any supported country’s currency or established crypto coins like Ethereum or Bitcoin.
How Populous Checks for Credit Worthiness
Populous uses XBRL data and Altman Z-scores to check the financial credit worthiness of participants and reduce risk for investors.
XBRL is an international standard for communicating and exchanging company information that’s freely available to anyone. XBRL takes the financial information businesses submit to government regulators each year and internationally standardizes the data so it can reviewed and compared regardless of its country of origin.
Populous has incorporated an XBRL engine as part of its in-house credit reference system. It extracts an enormous amount of data from the financial statements filed by businesses and uses analytical tools to sift through the information and provide useful insights. Those insights flag risks or opportunities that are directly used on the platform to reduce the costs of short-term funding for invoices.
The Altman Z-score formula gives three predictive measures: the probability that a company will go bankrupt within two years, whether or not a company will default, and a control measure for checking financial distress.
By merging these data sets, Populous can effectively target businesses in need of cash flow and vouch for businesses that use the platform.
Acquiring and Storing Populous Pokens
Populous is currently available on Binance, EtherDelta, Mercatox, and HitBTC. EtherDelta dominates with 80% volume, followed by Mercatox with 15% and HitBTC with 5%. Binance only recently began carrying PPT.
Since PPT is an ERC20 token, it can be stored on any wallet that supports Ethereum-based tokens, including MyEtherWallet (MEW), Parity, or Mist. Hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano S and Ledger Blue can also be used to manage PPT but only when used with MEW.
Liquidity of Populous (PPT)
The value of PPT has risen significantly since its release and it looks like it’ll continue to maintain an upward trajectory well into 2018. PPT is very liquid and can quickly be traded for ETH on EtherDelta.
